that's been my experience. >> do you feel, for the first time, you've gone back to the joy of life you had as a young boy? >> yes. it is remarkably the same. >> kelsey, a real pleasure. thank you very much. >> thanks. >> piers, thank. it's 10:00 on the east coast. good evening, everyone. we begin tonight keeping them honest on the campaign trail. a 5-year-old newsletter is tonight raising new charges of flip flopping by republican presidential candidate newt gingrich. since entering the race back in may, gingrich has become one of the harshest critics of health care reforms his opponent romney signed into law five years ago as governor of massachusetts. take a look. >> your plan essentially is one more big government bureaucratic high cost system which candidly could not have been done by any other state because no other state had a medicaid program as lavish as yours and no other state got as much money out of federal government from the bush

administration for this prrmt. experiment. so there's big government behind romney care, not as much as obama care but a heck of a lot more than your campaign has admitted. >> big government, high cost. two of gingrich's favorite slams on the romney reforms. he also likes to hammer the centerpiece of the massachusetts law, which was the individual mandate that requires all residents above a certain income level to buy health insurance or pay a fine. the idea is controversial, but not so long ago many conservatives, including gingrich, supported the idea. here's what he wrote in april of 2006 in a newsletter called "newt notes." this was just after massachusetts enacted its health care law. "the most exciting development wrote, is what is happening in massachusetts. the health bill signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the american health care system. help went on to say, we agree entirely with governor romney and massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100% insurance coverage for all americans. what's more, gingrich applauded the individual mandate in the

law. quote, we also believe strongly, he wrote, that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st century intelligent health system. individuals who can afford to purchase health insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on a system that's on the verge of collapse. these free-riders undermine the entire health system by placing the onus of responsibility on taxpayers. now gingrich did include some caveats about the massachusetts law and suggested some tweaks to the nuts and bolts, but he gave its principles a glowing thumbs up. this wasn't a new position from him, either. here's what he said on "meet the press" back in 1993. >> i am for people, individuals, exactly like automobile insurance, individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance. i'm prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals on a sliding scale a government subsidy so to ensure that everyone as individuals have health insurance. >> that was in 1993. here he is in 2008 still supporting in the bluntest of

language individual mandates. >> got to require everybody to either have insurance or to post a bond. but the fastest growing section of the uninsured is people over $75,000 income who are making a calculated gamble that if they get sick, you'll take care of them. and i think that's just immoral. >> immoral, he said. now, the gingrich newsletter that surfaced from 2006 is giving his opponents new ammunition with the iowa caucuses just a few weeks away. a gingrich spokesperson said and i quote, this is old news that has been covered already. newt previously supported a mandate for health insurance and changed his mind after seeing its effects. the real question is why mitt the massachusetts moderate won't admit that health insurance mandates don't work. keeping them honest, though just this past may after entering the republican race, gingrich was still backing the idea of an individual mandate. here's what he said on "meet the press." >> i agree that all of us have a responsibility to help pay for

health care. there are ways that do it that make most libertarians happy. i've said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you have health insurance or post a bond or you indicate that you're going to be held accountable. >> but that is the individual mandate, is it not? >> that's a variation. >> that was in may, whatever made him change his mind on the issue wasn't on his radar yet. by october he was singing a much different tune, scrambling to distance himself from the very idea he talked about. >> actually we got the idea of an individual mandate from you. >> that's not true. you got it from the heritage foundation. >> yeah, we got it from you. you got it from the heritage foundation and from you. >> wait a second. you said it's not true. you did not get that from me. you got from it the heritage foundation. >> and you've never supported -- >> i agree with them. i'm just saying to this audience right now plain wasn't true. it's not where you got it from. >> and you supported in the past an individual mandate? >> i absolutely did with the heritage foundation against hillary care. >> you did support an individual mandate? >> okay. >> that's what i'm saying. we got the idea from you and the heritage foundation. >> okay. a little broader.

>> how does gingrich explain for supporting individual mandates then doing a 180? in today's statement a spokesman said that gingrich changed his mind. earlier this month in "the situation room" gingrich called it a mistake. >> in retrospect, we were wrong because what happens, once you got to a mandate, you've turned so much power over to the government that the politicians rather than the doctors end up defining health care. and so it was a mistake. >> we invited gingrich to be on the program tonight, he declined, said he didn't have time. in iowa, this is crunch time for the republican presidential contenders. wolf blitzer is there. he talked to newt gingrich earlier today in "the situation room." he joins me now. gingrich spent today playing a bit of defense on this, didn't he, wolf? >> he did. he realizes that there seems to be a contradiction. he acknowledges it. he says thatis position has changed. when i pointed out to him that even this year he seemed to be expressing some support for a health care mandate, if you will, he offered this exchange

with me. listen to this. i think it was in may you seemed to still at that time be supporting some form of mandate. >> notice the phrase here. i think it would be great to find a way to get every american covered. i think that would be better for the country. can you do that without a mandate? and part of what john goodman does is he creates a pool so if you don't want to buy insurance, you're not compelled to. your share of the tax break would go into a charity pool. if something happens to you, the charity pool takes care of you. and there are ways to do it that you don't infringe on constitutional freedom. >> still, anderson, there's no doubt this is a sensitive issue for newt gingrich right now because he sees his position over the years, going back as you point out into the early '90s when he was opposed to hillary clinton's health care plan and at the time he supported mandates, just as the heritage foundation did, there's no doubt his position has changed over the years. most reapply. so it's a sensitive subject,

especially out here on the campaign trail in iowa where president obama's health care law is not very popular with these conservative republican caucus goers. >> not what he wants to spend the day talking about so close to the caucuses. he also made some interesting comments today in your interview about another one of his republican rivals. i want to show our viewers what he had to say. take a look. >> you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance of reality and you look at his newsletters and then you look at his ads, his ads are about as accurate as his newsletters. >> if he were to get the republican nomination -- >> he won't. >> let's say he were. could you vote for him? >> no. i think ron paul's views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent american. >> pretty tough stuff saying he would not under any circumstances vote for ron paul if he did in fact get the nomination. his he still -- is gingrich still saying that he is running a positive campaign taking the high road, as he's

saying that these are just understandable responses to attacks by ron paul in this case? >> he was very tough on ron paul today. i was surprised as tough as he was. i think he's the first republican candidate to flatly say he would not be able to vote for ron paul if ron paul were to get the republican nomination. ron paul is doing very well here in iowa. he might win the iowa caucus a week from today. so i was surprised by that. he'll say he's just reporting the facts, he's just learning more about ron paul, and he's not going to negative, just being honest about it. that he's being above board. he's getting tougher. he's getting hammered. you are here in iowa even a day or two, you see the ads on television, the negative attacks on newt gingrich never stop from the other campaigners. now he's beginning to feel it and he's responding. he was pretty tough on mitt romney today though not as tough as he was on ron paul.

>> wolf, great interview today. let's bring in our panel, democratic strategist hilary rosen and republican strategist and former gingrich spokesman rich galen. how big of an issue were these memos where newt gingrich complimented romney's plan back in massachusetts? >> very big. much bigger than the court filings on his divorce and that kind of business. because it's very difficult for a candidate on the road, one of his opponents, to talk about that. this is right in everybody's wheelhouse on the end of the pond, the conservative end of the pond, that newt is swimming in along with perry and bachmann and santorum and, to some extent, paul. so they -- i expect that they will hammer him -- forget about the ads. they'll take this to every pizza place in iowa. >> but, rich, what's wrong -- let me just push back on that. what's wrong with him saying, look, i thought it was a good idea. we saw how it actually got implemented, and i don't believe in it anymore, i changed my mind. isn't that kind of refreshing as

opposed to doing what a lot of candidates seem to do, which is say that it's not actually changing their mind and go through laborious explanations why it's not? >> it would be refreshing were it also being carried by -- or parried by his campaign of his campaign doing nanny nanny boo boo by calling mitt romney names. that's just childish. but i mean, on the one hand his campaign is trying to hammer romney for saying essentially what you just said, that he tried it and he found it didn't work. and on the other side saying, well, because i'm newt gingrich, when i change my mind it's because i'm smart and i figure it out. >> hilary, do you agree it's a big deal for gingrich? >> i think it is a big deal for gingrich for some of the reasons that rich said, but also because he is trying to convince people that mitt romney is not trustworthy. every time he tries to do that, something else comes out where he himself has switched his

position to the point where you really never know what's going to come out of his mouth. you cannot be sort of the slow, steady, conservative alternative to mitt romney if you have all of the same faults that mitt romney has only you just have them from the -- a more conservative perspective. so you know, i think that gingrich's only shot here is to really wound romney in a fundamental way, but the more that this stuff comes out about him, the tougher it is. it is so important that people understand that what's happening in this republican primary is that these guys are freaking out about the fact that, oh, my god, we might get caught actually wanting to help americans have health insurance! you know? hello? most people actually want health insurance. how dare they go out acting like this is the worst thing that could ever possibly happen. and i think that when it comes to a general election, president obama, it doesn't matter if it's

newt gingrich or mitt romney, he's going to wipe the floor with them because actually people want health care. >> i want to watch that floor wiping when we get there, but let me say, anderson, i just turned 65 so i'm on medicare, so i'm out of this conversation. >> you are. you're protected. >> hilary, it's not just they're not saying people shouldn't have health insurance or health care, it's a question of what the government role in it should be. >> well, it is. and newt gingrich stepped right in it because he used to -- the republican conservative line is that these are all free marketeers, but he unveiled today the real reason that it's important to have more universal coverage because he actually called them free-riders, people who aren't willing to pay into a system for health care or aren't willing to live with some mandates. they're free-riders, because, as

we all know, the system ends up paying for everybody and those who don't participate, you know, get the biggest benefit. >> i want to ask you just before our show tonight, moments before our show tonight, rick perry, he's always said he's pro-life except in cases of rape or incest or the health of the mother. he just told an eye crowd this evening he now opposes abortion in all of those cases as well. >> he didn't say life of the mother. he said the first two. >> the first two. what do you make of that? >> well, romney -- i'm sorry -- perry. it was rick perry, yeah. he's been running ads claiming himself to be the purest of the evangelical conservatives in the race, and maybe he is. and this is just another step along that way. the conservative side of the equation in iowa is being split and split and split. and i think romney may be making a little headway. i think santorum's making a lot of headway. i don't think bachmann's going to do much.

but every one of those votes, but every time somebody decides they want to go to perry or a santorum, that comes right out of newt's hide. and i think that's one of the reasons we're seeing this drop. perry is not going to be the nominee either. so the fact that this is probably playing better in texas than it is in southeastern -- >> that's perry's last stand. >> how does gingrich have to do in iowa, hillary? >> you know he has to do well. he doesn't have to win, but he has to at least come in i think second to stay in this. but you know, we're going to go into new hampshire in a week, after iowa, then south carolina a week later, florida a week after that. gingrich is doing very well in south carolina and florida right now. but the primaries tend to have a sort of momentum factor. and people had a lot of expectations for gingrich essentially as the viable anti-romney candidate. if ron paul ends up winning

iowa, i frankly think that iowa gets dismissed and it all just moves to the next three caucuses. to really determine it. >> we'll be there again in four years, i think, because it's just what we do. but this reminds me very much of the thompson campaign four years ago, hilary, of which i was a member, where we came in third just barely beating out john mccain. it wasn't quite bad enough to drop out right then, which would have made life easier. we skipped new hampshire and went right to south carolina. we didn't do as well there as we wanted. so that was the end of it for us. i would suspect that's the route that gingrich might take as well. >> gingrich is raising a lot of money right now and he has money. obviously mitt romney has money. i think coming out of iowa, anderson, the real question is what happens to rick perry, what happens to rick santorum? those are candidates that might have still some extra support, still some extra resources and a base to deliver to either gingrich or romney. >> iowa doesn't identify winners, but it does identify

losers. >> thank for being honest. >> the iowa caucus will be one week from today. our coverage that night begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern. that's january 3rd. let us know what you think of facebook, google plus. add us to your circles. i'll be tweeting tonight. just ahead, you may know that tens of thousands of americans were sterilized without their consent here in the united states back in the 20th century. certainly a shameful fact of our history. we look at something you may not know, the refusal by states to compensate those victims. elizabeth cohen interviews victims of this unimaginable horror. >> the state of south carolina has said they're sorry. is that enough? >> no. >> more on his story tonight. also tonight a deadly blaze left experienced firefighters shaken. they could not save three little girls or their grand parents from the flames. what caused that fire. let's check in with isha. what are you following? >> thousands of anti-government

protesters took to the streets again today in the volatile city of homs. eyewitnesses said security forces fired into the crowd. opposition groups said more than three dozen people were killed across the country. this, despite the arrival of arab league monitors. that and much more when "360" that and much more when "360" continues. st fi years' tax returns. high school report cards. and i'm gonna need to see a receipt for that watch you're wearing. you know, you really should provide us with a checklist of documents we're gonna need up front. who do you think i am? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide a checklist of the mortgage documents you'll need up front. it helps keep you in the know every step of the way. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. what's going on? we ordered a gift online and we really need to do something with it... i'm just not sure what... what is it? oh just return it. returning gifts is easier than ever with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate.

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tonight a report on a really disturbing chapter in our history, one that's a lot more recent than you might think. did you know that at one point in the united states, more than half the states had four sterilization laws. we're talking about eugenic, a word that is typically associated with nazi germany. but a large eugenics movement in america before and after world war ii. sterilizations continued in some states into the 1970s. tens of thousands of americans who were deemed unfit to reproduce were operated on without their will or their consent. some of those victims are still alive today and many want justice. so far all they've gotten is a handful of official apologies. one state, north carolina, promised nearly a decade teague compensate victims. but we find they're still waiting. elizabeth cohen has more.

>> at the time, i couldn't do nothing about it. >> reporter: october 22, 1968. charles holt was 19 at the time, living in an institution for boys in buttner, north carolina, when his life was drastically changed, without his consent. >> they sent me to the hospital and they put me in a room and she gave me gas and i just went off to sleep. then when i woke up finally, i noticed something was wrong. and they told me what they done. and i was -- i wasn't happy. >> reporter: what they had done was surgery, a vasectomy to make him sterile. but why? it turns out the order came from the state, which said he was feeble-minded and unworthy of having children. >> i wanted to be just like any

other young man, to try to have a family, have some kids that i could call my own. it's sad that it happened that way. >> reporter: charles holt wasn't alone. in fact, his story is only one representing a shameful chapter in american history. from 1907 through the 1970s more than 60,000 americans were sterilized because they had, quote, unfit human traits. it was called eugenics. the goal -- breed out those considered to be a burden on the rest of society and make, quote, better human beings tomorrow. 33 states had eugenics programs at one time or another, supported by some of the nation's most respected doctors and social workers. even the supreme court approved it. oliver wendell holmes wrote in

one 1927 case, three generations of imbeciles are enough. in north carolina, anyone, a parent, teacher, neighbor, could ask the state eugenics board to have someone sterilized. some victims were developmentally disabled, living in institutions. records show others were living at home, forced to go under the surgeon's knife because they were paupers or because they were blind or deaf or had syphilis. >> to be sterilized if you were sexually promiscuous. >> or paralyzed or not physically attractive. they have a skin disorder, this person is not fit to reproduce. >> reporter: the state of north carolina has tasked charmaine fuller cooper to uncover this frightening past. >> the first time last year that i actually had to read an actual eugenics board record of an individual patient case file, i literally sat at my desk and cried for 15 minutes. >> reporter: her research shows 7,600 people in north carolina were sterilized. procedures here continued into the 1970s, well after many

states had stopped. so it's estimated that 2,000 victims are still alive. in later years it focused on women on welfare many of whom were african-american. north carolina is the only state to take steps to compensate victims. for nearly ten years the state legislature has written reports, submitted bills, even hearing from victims. >> i wouldn't have minded having a daughter, maybe two, maybe three. the state needs to award us because we got to carry on. >> reporter: so far these ctims have received nothing more than apologies from governor bev perdue. >> i just came here as a woman, a mama, a grandma to tell you it was wrong. >> reporter: compensating victims could cost tens of millions in a time of budget cuts. state legislators like representative ruth samuelsson are worried about money. >> we had to set priorities, do we compensate eugenics victims

or put classroom teachers in place. we had to make choices. >> reporter: it is possible that these victims will in the end walk away with nothing? >> that is a possibility if we don't have legislators who are willing to stand up for the victims. >> reporter: charles holt knows he may never see a dime. so the state of north carolina has said they're sorry. is that enough? >> no. >> reporter: what more do they need to do? >> i think they should give us some compensation off of it. >> reporter: 2012 could be the year the legislature acts. charles holt holds out hope for an award he says will fit the crime done to him more than four decades ago. what's just horrible is they did this to person after person after person. >> yes, ma'am. it's just disgusting. >> reporter: elizabeth cohen, cnn, linwood, north carolina. >> that's hard to believe americans were forcibly sterilized within the last 40 years. joining me to discuss it is paul lombardo, author of "three

generations, no imbeciles." buck versus bell. also areva martin is a disability rights attorney and children's advocate. appreciate both of you being with us. paul, it's stunning that this happened and in some places, i mean, anyone could suggest someone else should be sterilized. >> north carolina was unusual in this sense. most states required people to be in institutions, to be civilly committed before they could be operated on. but north carolina was wide open. a social worker, a doctor, the sheriff, the truancy officer or a teacher, anyone could make this recommendation to the eugenics board. >> and it could be just because someone was promiscuous? >> certainly sexual misbehavior was high on the list of things that people were sterilized for, not only in north carolina but other states as well. >> what's the likelihood that anyone will actually get compensated? how do you even put a dollar figure on something like this? >> you know, anderson, when i hear this story, it makes my blood boil.

to hear the legislators saying we're sorry, as if that's enough. that's just half the role here. we're talking about a matter of distributive justice. this is a matter of justice plain and simple. the state took an aggressive step. intentional acts of violating these people. your most inalienable right, your right to be a parent, to reproduce, was taken away from these individuals simply because some board determined that they weren't fit, they weren't, you know, capable of producing the kind of children that the state deemed, you know, desirable. so i hope that the legislature in this case steps up and compensates, makes whole these individuals who have suffered such an atrocity. >> areva, who was disproportionatelly targeted? i'm guessing african-americans and women. >> african-american and women. there was this whole gender thing happening, thought that women in particular were incapable of making good decisions about their reproductive rights or that they were more promiscuous than men.

so women were targeted and, as we heard in the piece african-americans disproportionately impacted in a negative way by this state action. and that's what's so galling about this. this isn't private individuals. this is every branch of government, state legislature, the executive branch and the judicial branch, determining that certain individuals in those without a voice in our society were not, you know, were not worthy of having children. >> paul, this was happening in 33 states including puerto rico. north carolina, are they the only ones even talking about compensation? >> as you showed in your graphic, there were more than 30 states that actually had these laws but only seven of them have actually recommended an apology, taken a position at all. there are still 20-some-odd states that haven't even gone that far. so the idea that the states will face this with compensation skips over the fact that many of them haven't even admitted that it happened. >> there's also, i guess, paul,

some who kind of view this as a left/right argument. to you, do you see it in those terms? >> i don't see it that way either today or historically. historically there were people from all different branches of not only government but all parts of the political spectrum that supported eugenics. every president from teddy roosevelt to herbert hoover and those in the middle like woodrow wilson, democrats, republicans and independents, supported some kind of eugenics in the first third of the century. today, we've got almost everyone condemning it, but i see very few people coming forward and saying it's time to address this with some kind of compensation. >> areva, is there any accurate number of how many people are still alive who were directly affected by this? in the piece elizabeth was reporting some 2,000 may be alive in north carolina. >> that number is startling enough for north carolina, anderson. but also what we do know is that reparations occurred with respect to japanese interment

camps, reagan, then-president bush provided resource, $20,000 for individuals in those interment camps. i would say that's the floor for these individuals because that was displacement, loss of property. we're talking about violation of people's bodies. being forced into surgery. being coerced. being told that if you don't sign for this surgery, you're going to be placed in an orphanage or in the case of parents on welfare, that they were going to lose their benefits if they did not submit to this surgery. so the numbers are staggering. there's a case, anderson, in alberta, canada, where a woman sued the government for wrongful sterilization and actually recovered over $700,000. and that caused that government to step up and make available close to $140 million to individuals, over 1,000, who had been sterilized by a similar government program. so there's a little hope out there that north carolina and other states -- and i recognize

what paul is saying, that some states haven't even said they're sorry -- but i think that north carolina has an opportunity to do something unique, and that's to say that these individuals matter, that you know, even though they were voiceless in society, that they are human beings and they matter. >> it's again just stunning. we'll continue to follow it. areva martin and paul lombardo as well, thank you. arab league monitors arrive in the heart of syria's uprising. but will they make any difference? tens of thousands of protesters flood the streets of homs to greet them. we'll show you how sear ran forces responded. and the deadly christmas fire in stamford, connecticut. what fire inspectors are now saying about the likely cause and why it spread just so fast. not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world.

♪

and isha is here with a 360 news and business bulletin. how are you doing? >> good. nice to have you back. >> glad to be here. the arrival of monitors from the arab league is not stopping the syrian government from launching assaults on protesters. opposition groups say 39 people were killed today. tens of thousands of syrians flooded the streets of homs, the city at the heart of this nine-month uprising. witnesses report that security forces fired bullets and teargas. mixed signals coming from the obama administration to allow yemen's president to come to new york for medical treatment. a white house official says it has been granted but the state department says no final decision has been made. president obama plans to ask congress this week to raise the

debt ceiling by more than $1 trillion to cover most of next year. the government is said to come within 100 billion of the current ceiling next week. a drop in holiday sales at sears are kmart means some locations will be closing their doors for good. the company that owns both chains says it will close more than 100 stores. a string of fights caused chaos at the mall of america in minnesota. shoppers posted video of the brawls on youtube. at one point police reported ten separate fights. witnesses say -- wait for it -- that the violence began after rumors spread that rappers lil wayne and drake were visiting the mall. police arrested nine people. i give up on people. >> you give up on people? >> i do. completely. >> don't give up on people. >> i won't give up on you. i'll check back with you in a couple minutes. serious stuff tonight. word tonight of a possible cause in that tragic home fire in connecticut that killed three young girls and their grandparents on christmas morning.

we've got the latest on what caused that fire. new information on a different christmas tragedy, this one in texas. police are releasing the identities of the victims and gunman in an apparent murder/suicide. ♪

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other new details tonight about the tragic christmas morning fire in stamford, connecticut, wiped out five members of one family. three young sisters and their two grandparents. the city's fire chief says the cause appears to be accidental, was likely the result of someone

in the house improperly discarding embers from the fireplace. the three-story house was undergoing renovations. it is unclear whether working smoke detectors had been installed yet. dozens of firefighters tried to put out the flames. the loss of life was too much for even the most senior members of the department. >> after 37 1/2 years, 38 years on the job, you're never prepared for anything like this. it's heartbreaking. i had to recall 70 firefighters today for debriefing and most of them broke down. >> deb feyerick has more. >> reporter: as fire raced through the victorian home just before dawn christmas morning, neighbors frantically called 911. >> stamford, 911. what's the address of the emergency? >> there's a huge fire right next to us. the whole house is on fire. >> what is the address, ma'am? >> we're at 2241 shippan avenue.

it's the house next door. major fire and there's three kids and a woman. >> reporter: trapped inside the stamford, connecticut, home, grandparents and their three granddaughters, 10-year-old lily and 7-year-old twins, grace and sarah. >> i was calling about a major, major fire with people in the house. >> we have the fire department on the way, ma'am. >> please, come quickly. >> reporter: the house was under renovation. it appears fireplace embers placed in an outdoor trash enclosure near the home ignited the blaze. mom, madonna badger, managed to climb out on to scaffolding, frantically directing firefighters to the third floor where she said her children were sleeping. >> the crew pushed through two rooms, unable to find the children. they were pushed back by the intense heat and flames. >> reporter: grabbing two of the frightened girls, family friend michael borcina, seen here on his facebook page, reached the second floor. >> the heat drove them to get separated. it looks like one went back

upstairs and another one was found with the grandmother. >> reporter: grandfather lomer johnson had spent christmas eve playing santa at manhattan's saks fifth avenue. he managed to lead one of the granddaughters to the back of the house, and climb on to the roof, then died before he could pull her to safety. >> just inside the window that he came out of, we found one of the young children. i guess there were a pile of books. it looks like she was placed on the books. >> reporter: the mother, a successful marketing executive, is said to be in shock. she was taken from the scene, sobbing, my whole life is in that house. >> when you don't make that rescue that you failed, and i don't think anybody wants to fail. >> this was such a horrific story. it affects a lot of people that heard it. the house had to be torn down immediatelit was so unstable. the fact that it was a construction site have anything to do with it? do we know?

>> that's one of the things investigators are looking into. right now no apparent smoke detectors, no fire alarm system. they're looking to see what role the construction may have played. but it was really placing the embers where they were placed and the wind picked up and it hit the house. you have to keep in mind that from the time the mom went to bed at 3:30, an hour before the house was consumed. ironically, it may have been the scaffolding that actually save hear life because she was able to climb out on that scaffolding. >> someone moved embers or they got blown? >> reporter: they had a yuletide fire. they were wrapping presents the night before christmas. it seems that when they emptied it out, put it in a bin thinking it was safer outside the house when in fact it wasn't. >> so they had taken the embers out. >> correct. they thought it was safer. >> fireplaces are so tricky like that. the grandfather, he was actually able to get out but couldn't bring the little girl out? >> this is what's so tragic. there was so much chaos in that house. you to remember they were running through fire. they were in their pajamas. this fire was so intense it was

pushing the firefighters out. they tried the third floor, the second floor, but the heat was so intense. he was able to get out of a window, thinking he was stepping on to a roof, but instead whether it was weakened by the flames, he stepped through the rafters. the child who was expecting him to reach into the home to pull her out, he simply -- it appears right now that he perished the moment he sort of stepped through the rafters. but they were found at the window on opposite sides. >> that's just so horrible. deb feyerick, appreciate the report. we're learning more about the christmas day massacre in texas and the gunman dressed as santa behind an apparent murder/suicide. wiped out an entire family. what killed heavy d? the hip-hop ledge en's death. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation,

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a 19-year-old california man faces one count of attempted murder in the shooting that paralyzed a u.s. army soldier during a part to welcome him home. he turns himself in yesterday. police have identified the victims of that brutal christmas day shooting in a dallas suburb. aziz yazdanpanah dressed as santa claus, allegedly killed his estranged wife, their two children and three other family members before turning the gun on himself. the couple was separated. court records show the suspect had filed for bankruptcy and was still living in the family's foreclosed home. the los angeles coroner's

office says rapper heavy d died of a blood clot in his lung caused by deep leg vein thrombosis. the 44-year-old also suffered from heart disease. he died on november 8th after collapsing at his beverly hills home. if you saw a "people" magazine cover of taylor lautner and the headline "out and proud" blame twitter and really bad photo shopping. the magazine says it's a fake. meet mitch gilbert, a colorado real estate businessman who gave the best christmas gift ever to a complete stranger. this month mitch found $10,000 in two sealed envelopes at las vegas airport while waiting for his flight. he could have pocketed the cash but instead tracked down the rightful owner, an el paso man who dropped the money while running to catch the flight. he got his cash back in time for christmas. mitch wanted to show his kids the right thing to do and he

would also want someone to do the same for him. a programming note, a few days from away from 2012. the party starts at 11:00 p.m. on saturday night new year's eve. it is right here on cnn. and trust me, you do not want to miss it. up next, anderson will have tonight's installment in the top ten ridiculist of 2011 countdown. tonight, number four, our number one favorite couple right here on "360." don't hate courtney and doug because they're in love. [ terri ] my husband, hank, was always fun.

never took life too seriously. 'til our son was born... that day, he bought life insurance. now, there's no way i could send our boy to college without it. if there was one thing i could say to hank, it'd be "thank you." you're welcome. hey, hank. [ male announcer ] life insurance you can use while you're still living. you are one lucky lady. mm-hmm. [ male announcer ] learn more from your state farm agent today.

well, we've been counting down the top ten ridiculists of the year. we asked you to vote for the top ten, you did. appreciate you taking time to do that. number four, it's our favorite couple. back in july. doug hutchinson and kathy studdard made the list for the second time. we told you about them before. you remember doug is a 51-year-old character actor. perhaps you've seen him in "the green mile" or "lost." or "x-files." i have no memory of him. his 16-year-old bride is courtney. for a moment i thought it was court-nay. you might have seen her relaxing on the beach wearing the american flag or perhaps sitting in a boat with a dog that matches her bikini. ♪ when i go shopping i've been popping when i'm walking

don't be talking♪ >> yeah, she's 16. kids today. so yes, there is a 35-year age difference and, no, courtney hasn't graduated from high school yet. and, yes, many have criticize their union. but the happy couple were on "good morning america" today explaining their relationship and putting all skepticism to rest. it's a classic love story. 51-year-old boy meets 16-year-old girl online, thus setting into motion a courtship. it sounds like every episode of "to catch a predator" but that's where you're wrong. this online romance was different. this was beautiful and unique. >> there's a really beautiful and unique way to get to know someone because we didn't have the distraction of -- >> mm-hmm the physicality. >> the physicality. i know what you're thinking where were this girl's parents. right? they were all for it. doug, being an upstanding guy made sure of that. here's what he told courtney's parents. >> if you are uncomfortable with

it, i will respect you and and courtney will respect you and we will step back. >> mm-hmm. did you see that? no, courtney did not get grounded and her father who is four years younger than doug did not file a restraining order. instead the parents gave their blessing. her dad even walked her down the aisle. let's hear it for the cool parent. luckily she didn't have to miss any chemistry tests when she jetted off to vegas to marry doug -- vegas? romantic. because as it turns out, courtney is home schooled via an online christian academy. she's a very religious girl. >> i was a virgin when i married him. >> see was saving herself. >> i knew if i kept that i would be blessed with a beautiful gift. god blessed me with my soulmate. >> and with the blessing of god and her virginity that she managed to hang on to for 16 whole years, courtney married her 51-year-old soulmate. she's talked about morality before, perhaps you remember on her youtube channel. >> i've never done pornography, i never will.

i'm a christian girl. i hold my faith very tightly. and i'm a virgin. and i plan to stay that way until i am married. >> and now she's married. she was married five months after she posted that video. way to make a plan and stick to it. i bet she learned that in 4-h. okay, sure some people are calling her husband a cradle robber, perverted, dirty old man, those are just words. we know the truth. >> people are welcome to their opinions. that's what the world is about. if they need to feel this way, that's theirs to hold. not ours. >> did you see that? can we roll that again? can someone please explain to me what is going on with courtney in this clip? >> people are welcome to their opinions. that's what the world is about. if they need to feel this way, that's theirs to hold.

>> what? are we frozen on this video? i know we're transfixed. but what was she doing with her face? it was like -- i almost think she just got roofied or maybe that's a side effect from botox. please, stop, take that out. if i didn't know better from courtney herself -- >> my breasts are real. everything about me is real. my hair is real. my teeth are real. my eyelashes are real. my breasts are totally real. >> it's all real. did she mention her breasts? i think she mentioned her breasts twice. as real as the reality show that courtney and doug are considering. please! or to put it another way, real head to toe. >> it's real head to toe. >> courtney's plastic surgeon was god. >> god, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule